Which brands did UK consumers rate as the best for customer experience? The highest score went to Amazon, with a Customer Experience Index (CXi) score of 81. Five more retailers — Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Debenhams, Next, and Boots — scored 75 or more, which is Forrester’s threshold for a customer experience to be considered “good.” It's evident that retailers are doing a better job, on average, of meeting their customers' expectations than the other industries that online consumers rated in this study — airlines, banks, electronics manufacturers, hotels, retailers, and TV service providers.

Among bank brands, Halifax was the top performer with a CXi score of 70, fully 13 points ahead of the lowest bank in the index — Santander, with a score of just 57. Bringing up the rear in Forrester’s index were TV service providers and mobile telecommunications providers — Virgin Media, BT (TV Service), Vodafone, and Orange all had “very poor” CXi scores of less than 55.

If you’re familiar with the Customer Experience Index that Forrester has conducted annually in the US since 2007, you will know that this research provides allows us to compare the experience at leading companies — as rated by their customers. We achieve this by asking customers if their experiences with leading brands met their needs, were easy, and were enjoyable:

We conducted a consumer survey in seven European countries. The UK survey allowed us to benchmark the quality of customer experience for 28 UK brands across seven industries – including airlines, banks, electronics manufacturers, hotels, retailers, TV service providers, and wireless service providers.

How can you benefit from this research?

Read the CXi UK report on the Forrester website

Look out for upcoming CXi research by Joana van den Brink-Quintanilha and me. Our next reports will reveal the CXi for brands in France and Germany.

We'll use the CXi data to model the connection between customer experience and business outcomes for European companies — enabling us to answer the question, “What is a good customer experience worth to a brand in Europe?” We’ll reach out to the top scoring brands to understand how they have managed to create and deliver experiences that their customers love. And we’ll continue to run this survey annually, so that we can learn lessons from the brands that improve their customer experience.

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